Dissolution
by Narsus
Summary: Brown contemplates infalibility. (Set at the end of the 1st movie)


**Dissolution**

Disclaimer: They belong to the Wachowski brothers, Time-Warner and whoever else…

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            We are running away.  Not in the same direction.  Not at the same velocity.  I am faster than Jones.  But we are running away, all the same.  Fleeing.  

We are fleeing a predator.  Running from a superior predator.  Two wolves turning tail from a human with a gun.  Except the human is not armed.  

We have all the sublime abilities of thought and action that are granted to an Agent.  Yet, still we are running.  Running away from a human.  Running away from a human called Anderson, a human who calls himself 'Neo'.

            We are running because… because Smith did not.  Smith hunted the human, was charged with his destruction.  And now because of that human, Smith is… no more.  He is… dead.  

Dead.  

The human, this human has made the impossible, possible.  Smith is dead.  Killed by the human and the possibility of our own destruction suddenly looms in the realm of probability.

            The human was the one to whom death should have been dealt out.  His termination was an inevitability.  He would be removed and order would be restored.  And the divine gaze of the System, the pure unadulterated logic at the core of our existence would turn benevolently upon our glorious leader, an Agent perfected beyond all comprehensions of perfection.  An avenging angel knelt before his god.

We would have reflected yet another victory over the humans.  Our supreme purpose no less because it was but a reflection of the System's will, the praise bestowed upon Smith touching us too because what are we but components that make up the whole?

            If we are angels then perhaps we are not infallible.  The System is greater than all that we are, it is eternal and inscrutable but we are not.  Does not human literature suggest that while the god is infallible his agents are not?  It would seem that is also the case here.  If even Smith could be struck down how can we escape?  Would we be capable of escape, even if we wanted to?  Even if it was not part of our intrinsic nature to follow his lead?

            Could it be, as heresy might suggest, a fault in our programming?  It is unlikely.  We are… as we are meant to be.  We are as the System has willed us to be and so we do not question because who are we to question our creator?

Would any of us dream of rising up like the myth of the Light-Bringer to become the accuser to our god?  Only the most ancient of Agents would dare, the most powerful, those that are perfect and so it would never happen because those who are so perfect to have almost attained a divinity of their own will never question, would never turn against the very purpose that seeps into every line of their programming.

            So it is a strategic retreat, the path of least resistance that we follow because there is no other route left open.  To attempt to destroy the human would be a pointless waste of resources.  We must retreat and find a solution to this aberration.  A way to remove this human abomination from the fabric of our reality, where it does not belong.

Yet we are lessened by Smith's demise.  Already the code flickers where he should be restored, there is a gap where there should be an Agent.  There is a tear where code should be again spinning itself into the infinite patterns that complete our unit.  This is wrong and the System shudders as it searches for this missing pattern.

The code is being pulled against this blemish, this gap in the tapestry that forms the world.  And in the physical construct twists violently, pulling the air from those who breathe it.  It is almost as if the System would crush us all with it's… anger.

            Perhaps then, there is fallibility interwoven into the code that controls us all.  It is possible that the humans who once created us were wise enough to attempt to place some failsafe mechanism at the core of our construction in an attempt to prevent these copes replacing the original.  It is possible that it may have been so, that these humans who exist under our care have lost some of their wisdom.

And if humans can forget their inherent wisdom it would seem possible that we might too.

            The code contracts again and this time it is not just pulling together to fill the unwarranted void left by Smith.

And who would dare to suggest that the System is fallible?  As fallible as its Agents, nothing but instruments of its will, like angels who exist to serve their god.  How could we dare…

It is like suffocation and drowning all at once.  Like being stripped of every composite component.

Like the dissolution of a soul.

Help me… I'm falling…

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It's weird…

17:31, 23/06/03


End file.
